Stephanie Meyer versus LKH

[moonsinger.livejournal.com]

First of all, I've commented quite a bit on this community, but I've never posted.  I'm thinking about picking up the first Stephanie Meyer Twilight book, but I wanted to see what you guys thought of the series.  I've heard it had a lot of the flaws of the Anita Blake series.  I'm probably going to get it before the movie, but I'd at least like to know that it doesn't totally suck or it does totally suck before going in there.  Please don't give away plot stuff though since I haven't read any of the books.

Comments

[curseangel.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the series, but I read exactly one paragraph of the first of the Twilight series... burst out laughing, and promptly put away any thoughts I had of ever reading them.

Seriously. Vampires that sparkle in the sunlight. Sparkle. It was awful.

[beth-ann.livejournal.com]

Yeah, when I heard about the sparkling I went no. No, no, no. I want my vampires like I want my chocolate, dark, smooth and melting in the sunlight.

[jassanja.livejournal.com]

Well, my problem with Twillight is the Teenager thing.
This bunch of Vamps is happy to spend 100 years as teenagers (and unlike Anne Rice's Claudia they don't just act that way, but really are as naive as 16 year olds)
This goes even so far that the heroine fears that she could get older then her vamp crush.....

That (and the bad research about raising another person across two continents) is really the part that annoyed me so much, that I did not read any further

[evewithanapple.livejournal.com]

Anti-feminist tripe that's teaching tween girls that emotional abuse and stalking are signs of true love. It's disgusting.

[zgirl714.livejournal.com]

Yup.

[gothgoddessrhia.livejournal.com]

Agreed. That excuse about her falling down the stairs had me yelling "WTF?" The single most common excuse abused women give.

*shakes head*

[wariena.livejournal.com]

I think I'll have to agree. Reading it's kind of like falling down a well. A very deep well.

[easol.livejournal.com]

And that if a man tells you to do something, you do it submissively with no thoughts of what YOU want to do. Unless it's hormonal, of course.

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

Yep.
Edward is an emotionally and verbally abusive stalker who plays mind games with Bella, who is too stupid, vapid, brainless, and clueless to realize he's dangerous.

I love this:
http://scargut-the-gutless.deviantart.com/art/Methinks-Bella-likes-Edward-99242138

And of course, these:
http://shinga.deviantart.com/art/Head-Trip-Twilight-Sucks-85504254
http://shinga.deviantart.com/art/Head-Trip-Breaking-Dawn-98016573

[windiain.livejournal.com]

First book I loved, the next two had their moments, the final took a leap off a cliff and into the Twilight Zone, waving at LKH's worlds as it hurtled past.

[kessie.livejournal.com]

This was pretty much reaction too. XD;

[knowthyself.livejournal.com]

More or less, this!

It has its flaws, yes. I don't know that I would say they are the same flaws as the LKH books, though. I found the first three enjoyable for what they were--popcorn YA Vampire Romance novels. Expect that and I imagine you'll at least be entertained for the handful of days it takes to read them.

[quizzicalsphinx.livejournal.com]

Stephanie Meyer = Anita Blake without the sex. And not in a good way.

[tenaya-owlcat.livejournal.com]

The first book had some interesting concepts, and it's a mildly entertaining read. Beyond that, it goes downhill and the main character becomes completely incapable of taking care of herself... or thinking for herself, for that matter.

[othellia.livejournal.com]

Well, we've had 9000 similar posts, but to me Meyer never gets old. Anyways... LKH and Meyer? They both write self-insert sues from the first perspective. However, LKH infuses her own personality to best life through her books whereas Meyer wipes almost all sense of personality so that all of her teenage fans can life through the book and want an Edward of their own! :D

Shinga says it best (http://headtripcomics.comicgenesis.com/d/20080915.html).

[kellyfaboo.livejournal.com]

OMG, that comic is so spot ON!

[gehayi.livejournal.com]

Shinga's right. That's not even a parody; it's just deadly accurate observation.

[othellia.livejournal.com]

And OMG... I just reread my comment and realized that I used "life" instead of "live"... TWICE. D:

[knowthyself.livejournal.com]

might wanna tag that for spoilers, since the OP asked people not to tell any details!

[othellia.livejournal.com]

Whoops. Well... I'm not a fancy paid person, so I can't edit it. Hopefully she'll read this before she clicks on the link? :D

[moonsinger.livejournal.com]

It's okay. I'm reading two David Weber books before I even go to a bookstore or library, so I'll have forgotten most of what the comic said.

[moonsinger.livejournal.com]

If that comic weren't so scary, it would be funny.

[dkphoenix.livejournal.com]

I'd say they're more like Christine Feehan's Dark Carpathian series without the sex than Anita Blake. Twilight is very, very much about monogamy and finding your One True Love. (To the point that many of the characters don't have much choice in the matter.)

The writing style isn't terrible, but most of the characters are pretty flat, and not particularly likable. (Bella, the protagonist, is especially vapid and one-dimensional. Edward, her love interest, is controlling and domineering to the point of being abusive. (And most of the other characters are just peachy-keen fine with that, including Bella.) A lot of the characters are pathologically obsessive, but this isn't treated as an interesting character flaw, it's more like a substitute FOR personality. There's some rather squicky almost-pedophilia in New Moon and (especially) Breaking Dawn. And then there's the cringe-inducing "sparkle in the sun" passage.

I wouldn't pay retail for them. Check them out from the library, see if you can tolerate the issues enough to enjoy the entertaining bits.

[burning-nova.livejournal.com]

I didn't like what I read of Twilight. I found Bella annoying to the point where I wanted to throw the book across the room. Compared to Anita (the earlier version) I think Bella is lame and so are her vamps. Really, they're all like giant Mary Sues. At least in the earlier AB books it wasn't that bloody obvious and hello, WTF is it with sparkling? My vamps should either not burst into fire in the sunlight or do. If they sparkle I'm shooting myself.

[zgirl714.livejournal.com]

The entire book series could be condensed into one book. I thought the fourth book was the funniest because it was pretty wacky, but all of them drag on about nothing for pages. A lot like LKH without the sex.

[ruas1000.livejournal.com]

When I first heard of SMeyer and her concept, my very first thought was Anitaverse for tweens.

[zgirl714.livejournal.com]

Its really inane. Its badly written and so many of the fans of the books think that its the second coming of shakespeare which disappoints me on so many levels.

[fizzylizard.livejournal.com]

Save yourself some time and brain cells. Read cleolinda's recaps instead. She's gone through the whole shebang.

This is probably the easiest place to find most of them:

http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/630150.html

[ana-beachcombe.livejournal.com]

I swear to gods this is true: I just got back from a dinner with a bunch of HarperCollins executives and one of them told me she read Cleolinda's recaps and thought they were brilliant.

[brightlotusmoon.livejournal.com]

Holy crap, that's awesome! Yay for Cleolinda!

[terratheelf.livejournal.com]

I dislike the twilight books a lot due to the messages they send their readers. Granted I have only read bits and pieces and all the snark but after what I heard, I just cannot bring myself to even borrow them from the library.

I did read the leaked bit of the Edward POV book and honestly if that sort of person was expressing interest in me, I would be running the other way very very fast.

I was in a bookstore and there were two girls begging the clerks for book recs just like Twilight and all I could do was stare at them in shock. There is a lot better YA oriented vampire fiction out there. I read a good ton of it when I was in grade 8 and high school.

[moonbeamdancer.livejournal.com]

I would recommend buying the first book Twilight, at a used book store. New Moon and Eclipse were meh for me and Breaking Dawn sucks royally, so stay away from that one at all costs.

[dwg.livejournal.com]

badfic_quotes has an epic Twilight series sporkage linkfest (http://community.livejournal.com/badfic_quotes/570635.html) in the comments. I'm finding the snarks of the books to be both entertaining and educational. It'll be like a test drive to see if you really want to read the source material.

God I can't wait for the movie. XDDD

[moonsinger.livejournal.com]

Well not to worry, I'm in no hurry to read paranormal fiction right now. I'm on a science fiction kick right now. You might call it a bit of paranormal burn out. I'm waiting for Charlaine Harris's hardback to come out in paperback or something.

When is the movie coming out?

[moonsinger.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I have to switch around on books. I mostly read fantasy, science fiction, and paranormals, but I also read nonfiction for research in my own writing.

November is close enough for me. Heck, with two kids I probably won't see it until it comes out on video. At least I managed to see Iron Man and Batman in the theaters.

Thanks. I love that picture of my daughter; now I can't even hold her like that as she's 8.

[watersheerie.livejournal.com]

Twilight is terrible.

And even 'terrible' is too mild a word to explain the epic horror that awaits you.

'Twilight' at it's best is simply boring. At it's worst it's an offensive book that sends a negative message to young women. It's degrading to women in general. It's so freakin' long, yet has absolutely nothing of worth within those pages. Impossible, I know, but Meyer managed to write a long-ass book that says nothing at all.

Edward eats mountain lions, and Meyer is dumb enough to say that he only does it in areas where the population is excessive... May I ask where in the USA is there an excessive population of an endangered animal?

[red-rose-remix.livejournal.com]

X3 It's riddled with things to make your brain hurt. If you're just looking for entertainment and don't take it seriously, it might be worth it.

[Bad username or site: @ livejournal.com] has an awesome parody of the first book, and she's just had it published through Lulu. She starts the second book parody soon!

[nightangel486.livejournal.com]

OMG yes! I loved those books! My younger sister loves Twilight so I tried to get her to read the Vampire Diaries, since I saw so many similarities between the two as well. L.J. Smith did it much better though.

[putana.livejournal.com]

Damon ;)

And I fear what he'll end up like in the new book. :X

[moonsinger.livejournal.com]

I'll have to add the Vampire Diaries to my goodreads to read list then. Thanks.

I mostly wanted to read the first book and see what the hype was about. But I'm certainly not in any hurry. I'd much rather get Mercedes Lackey's new Valdemar book that comes out tomorrow.

[maladaptive.livejournal.com]

Anita Blake is hugely superior to Twilight-- unless you read Twilight (and especially Breaking Dawn) as straight-up horror. Then it's a masterpiece of nightmare fuel, the likes of which I have never before been subjected to.

[belledewinter.livejournal.com]

... Stick to Anita's nymphomaniac-filled world. I mean, srsly. As bad as the AB books have been at times, the first two Twilight books kept me wanting to spoon my eyes out and burn the book in frustration. And yeah, I even tried. No deal. :/

[nightwalker.livejournal.com]

The Morganville Vampires by Rachel Caine and Sunshine by Robin McKinley are both better vampire reads than anything Stephanie Meyers could offer you.

/pimpage

[putana.livejournal.com]

I haven't read the books, but from what I've heard (especially the development of the series), I think they make AB:VH look like plot filled well written works. Seriously (and that makes me feel gross just saying it).

Probably okay to give them a go if you are interested, since they do have a decent following. And some sane fans in amongst the fangirls with crushes on Edward.

[moonsinger.livejournal.com]

From what I've seen on this forum about Edward, I may want to crush him, but I won't ever have a crush on him. He sounds like a grade A abusive jerk.

[putana.livejournal.com]

WORD. I find that the fascinating thing about the series - Bella sounds stupid, but I find her far more likable than Edward. I don't get the fangirls running about praising Edward and hating Bella.

...well, I *do*, because it is mostly fantasizing that they ARE Bella. Still sad though.